Word forming game apparatus comprising matching hexagonal board areas and playing pieces



Oct. 14, 1969 c, G EN 3,472,514

Tus co RISING MATCHING HEXAGONAL, s AN YING PIECES WORD FORMING GAME APP BOARD AREA D PLA 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 16, 1967 5 F/c; y

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NIM!" /A/VE/VTOQ ERNEST CHARLES GREEN l MM@ Oct. 14, 1969 E. c. GREEN 3,472,514 A APPARAT COMPRISING MATCHING HEXAGONAL D PLAYING PIECES WORD FOHMING G RD AREAS Filed May 16, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 @5. @a mmw /A/VEA/TOP ERNEST CHARLES GREEN ocr. 14, 1969 E. c. GREEN 3,472,514

WORD FGRMING GAME APPARATUS COMPRISING MAT ING HEXAGONAL BOARD AREAS AND PLAYING PIE Filed May 16, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Q 9 Q E a G Q 0 Resma@ Q 6 Q 9 Q Q (0) O MNHN O 0 QQ 0*@@00 o /A/VEA/ TO Q' ERNEST CHARLES GREEN @www fag/ United States Patent O WORD FORMING GAME APPARATUS COMPRIS- ING MATCHING HEXAGUNAL EGARD AREAS AND PLAYING PIECES Ernest C. Green, Southbrook House, Whimple Area,

Exeter, England Filed May 16, 1967, Ser. No. 638,787 Claims priority, applicatiorGeat Britain, May 18, 1966,

4 5 Int. Cl. A63f 3/00, 9/08 U.S. Cl. 273-135 2 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE An educational game useful in the learning of spelling and word meanings comprising a board with a honeycomb pattern of hexagonally shaped cells in rows and columns, two starting rows at one side of the board, and two finishing rows on the other side which are differently colored than the starting rows, and hexagonally shaped counters, some bearing alphabetical characters and some being blank, and which are drawn in the same number by each player. The hexagonal cells are positioned with a side parallel to the start and finish lines. Play proceeds with the first player playing counters in the form of a word on a straight line which may be a horizontal line or a diagonal line, the word starting at the start line. Subsequent players proceed with extensions of the word until the finish line is reached. The alphabetic character on the counter is positioned with its vertical center line parallel to a flat edge of the counter.

The invention has as its object the provision of new or improved games and teaching apparatus.

According to the invention the game and teaching apparatus comprises a board provided with a honeycomb or multi-hexagonal patterned playing area having distinguishable starting and finishing ends, and sets of hexagonally shaped tiles or counters some of which bear alphabetical characters or letters and some of which are blank, which tiles or counters are normally stored in an opaque receptacle from which latter they may be manually and haphazardly withdrawn for arranging on the said playing area.

The apparatus, apart from its amusement aspect, is of great value as a teaching aid to the spelling and use of words, particularly when children are encouraged to seek the aid of a dictionary.

IIn order that the invention may be fully and clearly comprehended the same will now be described with ref ence to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a board, illustrating the pattern on the playing area thereof according to the nvention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged plan view of one of a plurality of counters or tiles according to the invention, all of which tiles are of identical shape.

FIGURE 3 is a side view of the tile illustrated in FIG- URE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a sectional side View of a modified type of tile according to the invention.

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of a fragmental portion of `a board or playing area according to a modification of the invention.

FIGURE 6 is a view similar to FIGURE 1, drawn to reduced scale, illustrating how the apparatus can be utilised by two players.

FIGURE 7 is a diagram showing a possible finish of a game according to the invention when played by four persons.

Apparatus according to the invention comprises:

3,472,514 Patented Oct. 14, 1969 ICC.

(l) A board 1, see FIGURE 1, composed of cardboard, wood, synthetic plastics or any other desired material, on one surface of which board there is printed, engraved or moulded a honeycomb or multi-hexagonal pattern to provide a rectangular playing area. The first two rows A and the last two rows B of cells or hexagonal areas of the board represent the starting and nishing ends, respectively, of the playing area and may be coloured, printed or otherwise treated to have a distinctive appearance.

(2) Two or more sets of tiles or counters 2 of hexagonal shape corresponding in size to the hexagonal cells of the board, see FIGURES 2 and 3. Each tile bears on one or both sides an alphabetical character or letter and each set is differently coloured. Also forming part of each set are, for example, four or five blank tiles, three or four of which may be silver coloured and one of gold colour.

(3) Each set of tiles is housed in an opaque bag or receptacle of distinctive colour, not shown in the drawings.

(4) If desired a die and shaker may also be included in the apparatus for deciding order of play of the game, but this is not essential.

The broad object of the game is for players to form words across the board 1, from starting end to finishing end, by placing tiles 2 on the playing area of the board according to the rules of the game.

Before play commences it is decided by casting a die, or otherwise, in what order the players will start.

Assuming two persons only are to play, each player withdraws a predetermined number of tiles 2 from his bag in haphazard manner and places them in front of him, o the board, together with three or four blank tiles which are silver coloured, although one per player may be of gold colour. The predetermined number of lettered tiles may be six.

Should the person entitled to go first be able to form a word with some or all of his first six tiles 2 he places them on the board with the first letter 'of the proposed word on the starting line and continues the remainder of the word in a horizontal direction (from left to right in FIGURE 6) on the honeycomb pattern of the board.

To illustrate the manner of play, reference is directed to FIGURE 6 of the drawings where it will be observed that one player (call him White) has placed his tiles to form the word LAVER. Thereafter, he draws more tiles from his stock, say three, in a haphazard manner and awaits his opponents play.

In the present example the opponent (call him Black) starts with the word CLEAN After Black has played he too withdraws three more tiles from his stock.

The players continue to play alternately if they have suitable tiles to form a word at each turn. Otherwise they have to miss their turn but must withdraw another three tiles from their stock whether they have played or not.

Play must always proceed from the starting to the finishing end of the board either straight ahead or to either left or right in a diagonal direction. For instance, it will be seen on referring to FIGURE 6 that White has ernployed the last letter of LAVER to form the first letter of a diagonally arranged word RIPS and that Black has similarly proceeded with the word NIB.

Thereafter White has formed the word SLUDGE in a straight or horizontal line and later has employed the last letter of Blacks BIER to make the diagonally arranged word REEFJ A word may be deliberately stopped in the direction in which it is heading by the placing of a plain (silver) tile as shown in FIGURE 6 where the silver or stop tiles are shown horizontally shaded. No extensions of words may be made after insertion of a stop tile but play may continue immediately following a stop and either player may insert a stop tile at any time, such insertion constituting a turn.

The game proceeds with players extensions and latchings until they near the nishing end or goals.

A goal scores the most points and must t exactly when placed. A player for instance putting down TENT must end with the nal T on the goal. An opponent may however cut in to a players advance with a nal word that ends as required.

By either a left or right hand approach it is possible for a player to score two goals with one word. For example, by adding T in the second row B to the word TEN, which ends in the rst row B, the word TENT is created, and one goal is awarded for the rst word TEN, the other being awarded for TENT. Obviously, one goal can be awarded for the word TEN to one player and another goad for TENT to another player who adds the T. Any character which ends a Word and rests on a goal space (nish line) scores a goal and, in the present illustration, the T which is added to TEN rests on such a goal space.

Referring to FIGURE 7, the nish of a possible game of four players is shown, the four sets of tiles being of dierent colours, eg., 5 indicates red, 10 indicates blue, indicates yellow and 20 indicates green. Stop or silver tiles are indicated by the numeral 25 and gold tiles by numeral 30.

A gold tile may be used by a player at any time in a game to represent any desired letter but as each player has only one gold tile he should employ it very judiciousl Inystead of the tiles or counters 2 being of the type shown in FIGURES 2 and 3 they may incorporate a hexagonal recess 2A on either or both sides (see FIGURE 4) which recesses are adapted to nest in or mesh with hollow cells 1A provided in a board 1 of the kind shown in FIGURE 5, so preventing accidental displacement of tiles. A further alternative for the tiles may consist in having the tiles hexagonal and of uniform thickness, said tiles being white. Adapted to be slipped over the tiles are hexagonal plastic coloured covers which are transparent. Several colours of covers may be provided and each player would keep a stock of one colour, the white tiles being stored in a common receptacle during play.

The rules of the game are intended to be kept as simple as possible, each player gaining a point or a predetermined number of points for each word he places, a greater number of points being gained by achieving a goal. The winner is the player who scores the most goals, but in case of a goals tie word points may be totalled, it being understood that a score card or cards is marked as games proceed.

Plurals are allowed but hyphenated words are not, and neither are prefixes.

The manner of employing the apparatus may be varied according to agreement of the players. Thus, it could be decided to limit the words used to sporting, historical, geographical or other type meanings.

When the apparatus is used with a teacher/pupil relationship it has great educational value.

Play ceases when all or as many as possible goal places are filled, and as previously stated rules may be varied in many ways. For instance, each player may draw three or four silver counters or tiles at the start of a game or they could be drawn haphazardly. Each letter placed to form a word could earn one point and if a word is extended by two or more letters six points could be earned, the originator of the word still retaining his points.

All play must be in a forward direction and a goal scored obliquely may score two lots of, say, ten points each, twenty in all.

What is claimed is:

1. An educational aid and game apparatus useful in the learning of spelling and word meanings comprising: a board bearing a regular honeycomb pattern consisting of a plurality of hexagonal cells in regular array in horizontal rows and vertical columns, said regular array having a starting row at one side thereof and a finishing row at the opposite side thereof, said starting row being different in colour from said finishing row and from the rest of said array, said cells of said array being positioned with a flat side parallel to said starting and finishing rows; hexagonally shaped counters, each of which is adapted to be tted by a player within one of said hexagonal cells on the board; a predetermined number of said counters to provide a set for each player, certain of said counters bearing alphabetical characters and others being blank, the alphabetical character on each counter being positioned with its vertical center line parallel to a flat edge of the counter.

2. A game apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said hexagonal cells are each in the form of an indented hexagonal unit bearing short vertical walls and said counter fits detachably within said walls to resist accidental displacement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 485,029 10/1892 Conkling 273-134 1,591,639 7/1926 McDonald 273-131 1,631,558 6/1927 Stevens 273-131 2,757,934 8/1956 Dunbar 273-136 3,116,927 l/1964 Kuhlman 273- FOREIGN PATENTS 1,107,303 8/1955 France.

43 0,249 6/ 1935 Great Britain. 885,340 12/1961 Great Britain.

DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 273-137 

